The Pre-operative Diet

"Blythe waits patiently as the clock ticks"


11 days pre-operatively.
Starting Weight: 16 stone 3lbs
Current Weight: 15 stone 7lbs
Weight Lost: 10lbs

If you've made it this far then well done. So after all that off-loading in the previous post I suppose I should get down to the nitty gritty.


Having had my consultation, seen the dietitian and been given a date for my surgery, I was given the pre-op diet advice. This seems to differ from surgeon to surgeon. Some people seem to be asked to lose a stone prior to surgery, some people are asked to restrict their diet for a week or 2 weeks. Some people do the milk and yogurt diet. It seems that all this restriction is to shrink the liver and thus allows the surgeon to furtle about inside you with greater ease.
Here's the paradox: I'm getting the surgery as I have finally acknowledged that I have difficulties with controlling my diet and the first thing that I am asked to do is diet. So has it sent me straight to the biscuit tin? Hell, no.


Must be the thought that I am only doing this for 2 weeks and then there's the surgery. So far I have stuck religiously to 800 calories a day. Mucho protein and even remembering the vitamins. In fact I have been finding it too easy I think... so much so that this morning I started questioning my need for surgery. I have been yoyoing between 15 1/2 and 16 1/2 stone for 12 months. I lose 5 lbs, put on 6lbs. Lose 8lbs, put on 5lbs ... you get the general pattern. Now I'm starting to get a bit cocky ... I can do this myself, I don't need surgery, think of all the money I'll save (or to be precise - think of how much less debt I'll be in), and then I won't be risking any of the horrible potential complications and side effects.


Who am I kidding? Lets examine what will happen in reality. I'd stick to this brilliantly for maybe a week, maybe a month ... lets go crazy - maybe even 3 months. I'd lose a stone, 2 stones or even 3 stones. But, then it'll happen. That thought, that urge, that hunger pang ... and I may even have an internal battle in my mind. Or, I may just start to over-eat without even really thinking about it, find myself pulling into the petrol station or heading to the drive-thru on the way back from the office. But it will happen and once it starts it just doesn't seem to stop. Then comes the guilt and the shame, the flip-side from being on top of the world with my success to the depths of despair because I know that the one thing that suppresses those feelings of gloom will be even more food. Then comes the carbohydrate highs .... and the subsequent crashes. Oooops I'm becoming melondramatic now.


So surgery it is.


What will happen if I get the urge to over-eat? Will I still get these urges? Will it be like when I had gallstones and the fear of the pain was stronger than my will to eat? Will I wake up after surgery a brand new woman with all of this food baggage magically erased? Fat chance.
I do have hope though. I have hope that I can get a handle on this. I have hope that I'll feel full when I've eaten. I don't get full. Or if I do I'm not aware of it. The sheer volume of what I can eat makes me blush. My stomach seems to have an infinite capacity to hold food and as soon as I have stopped I want more. Many a time I've eaten my dinner and thought, "I could eat that again" and have. I don't have 3 meals a day - my whole bloody day is a meal. I merely interrupt it to sleep and perform my ablutions. Jack Spratt is just lucky that I put the baked potatoes down long enough for a bit of nooky.

Come on, positive thoughts ... onwards and upwards (but not the scales).